Hong Kong International Airport registered positive growth in air cargo tonnage for the seventh month in a row - up 38% year on year - to 354,000 tonnes in April. Air-traffic movements also increased 2.7% over last April, to 24,725. Passenger volume declined 1.5%, to approximately 4.2 million.

Airport Authority Chief Executive Officer Stanley Hui is confident passenger traffic will pick up. He noted that the exceptionally strong Easter holiday traffic last year had created a high base for comparison, then Iceland's volcanic eruption and the Black Outbound Travel Alert for Bangkok had a negative impact.

"As a result, there was a slight decline in passenger throughput last month. However, growth momentum for passenger traffic remains strong and I am confident we will continue to see an improvement in these numbers over the coming months."

Key markets recovering

The strong cargo growth was mainly attributed to the continued recovery in the airport's  key export markets, in particular North America and Europe. Exports recorded an increase of 57%, while imports showed year-on-year growth of 30%, and transshipments, 10%.

Hong Kong resident travel registered a year-on-year decline of 4%, and transfer/ transit traffic dropped by 9%. However, visitor numbers showed an increase of 8%, driven by traffic to and from South East Asia and North Asia.

From January to April 2010, the airport handled 16.2 million passengers, representing year-on-year growth of 4.5%, 1.3 million tonnes of cargo, up 35.1%, and 94,825 aircraft movements, up 1.6%.